Darren Aronofsky Asking Hugh Jackman to Eat 6,000 Calories a Day

To prepare for his role in Wolverine, director Darren Aronofsky is asking Hugh Jackman to build more muscle.

“Right now, I’m at 210,” Jackman told the Los Angeles Times of his current workout regiment. “It’s 6,000 calories a day. It’s rough.”

Jackman shared what Aronofsky thought of his look in his previous film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

“Darren said with the last one, ‘Hey you looked great, but you’re so tall that in those long shots you looked kind of like Clint Eastwood, and that’s not Wolverine,’ “ the actor, who next stars in Real Steel, recalled. “He said that Wolverine, in the comics, is powerful, stocky ... he’s short and thick. So he said, ‘I want you to go there, get bigger.’ “

This shouldn’t be surprising. Aronofsky, who asked Black Swan star Natalie Portman to lose 20 pounds for the film, wanted Jackman to look more muscular.

“If I have a massive heart attack, well, you tell everyone what I was going for,” Jackman teases.